Shanghai is developing a facial recognition system to identify jaywalkers

Would-be jaywalkers in Shanghai beware! China’s largest
metropolis has become the latest mainland city to test a new
facial recognition system to name and shame pedestrians who cross
the road on a red light, Thepaper.cn reported.

During a pilot programme at a single location in late May, the
system recorded more than 300 people crossing the street when
they shouldn’t have been, Qi Yue, an officer with the Shanghai
Public Security Bureau’s technology department, was quoted as
saying.

TheSouth China Morning
Postreported last month that similar
systems had already been trialed in other Chinese cities.

"Once an offender’s identity is confirmed, his or her photo will
be published at a bus stop near to where the offense was
committed," he said.

"The police will also get in touch with the person to follow up
on the incident," he said.

Once the system detects a person crossing the road when the
lights are on red, a signal is sent to the video camera to start
recording, Qi said.

Stills from the footage are then checked against China’s national
identity database to identify possible matches, he said.

As well as being named and shamed, those found guilty will also
be fined 20 yuan (US$3), the report said.

However, of the 300 people filmed during the pilot scheme, just
four were subsequently identified and punished, it said, without
explaining the discrepancy in the numbers.

Police were quoted as saying that they plan to roll the
scheme out to other parts of the city, such as the busy Huaihai
and Nanjing roads, the report said, without giving a time
frame.